


Prized

by Deastar



Series: To Be Seen Aright [9]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, Possessiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 00:28:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21485359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deastar/pseuds/Deastar
Summary: Geno props himself up on one elbow and starts counting on the fingers of his other hand. “One,” he starts, “you best. Two, Vero’s hang out with you a lot, so she’s see you best. Three, when she’s see you best, of course she want!” He says this last triumphantly, as if he’s scored some kind of point.Sid bursts out laughing, and he only laughs harder when Geno gives him a betrayed look and says, “I worry, Sid, come on! She’s have you in her house all the time, of course she want you stay!”Once Sid calms down, he cups a hand around Geno’s cheek and meets his eyes to say, “I love you, but you’re ridiculous. Geno, literally no one but you thinks I’m such a great sub. Literally no one but you even thinks I’m any good at all.”He leans in for a kiss, but Geno pulls away, frowning. He meets Sid’s eyes and asks, “Sid… you really think that?”
Relationships: Marc-Andre Fleury/Veronique Fleury, Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Series: To Be Seen Aright [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/927903
Comments: 119
Kudos: 417





	Prized

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time! I've missed you, and this universe. This story should stand alone very well, even if it's been a while since you've read To Be Seen Aright.

One of the small, subtle ways that Geno is careful with Sid is by being careful with time, Sid’s noticed. Today, for example, with a game tonight, Geno is careful not to start the kind of scene that might run so long that they’d have to rush through aftercare. He keeps it simple: his bare hands on Sid’s wrists, the weight of his body pinning Sid down, and a low rumble of praise in Sid’s ears, pushing him toward—and then over—the edge.

When they’re coming down together afterward, Sid takes advantage of the luxury of that time, pressing himself against Geno’s side, resting his head on Geno’s chest and draping his arm and leg over Geno, too. Sid missed this more than anything, in the long summer months when Geno was in Russia, and he wants to soak up as much closeness as he can. He loves the secret knowledge of the resting rhythm of Geno’s breathing, and the thump of Geno’s heartbeat under his ear. And the touch of Geno’s skin against his own, soft in the hidden places or rough with scar tissue from the life they both share – Sid can’t ever get enough of that.

Sid sighs, and pets the little swell over Geno’s hip that would be a love handle if they ever slowed down enough to keep on any weight. He wiggles a bit, just settling in against Geno’s body, and Geno huffs out a quiet laugh.

“You so cuddly, Sid.”

He doesn’t sound displeased, but it makes Sid self-conscious anyway. He’s never heard a dom describe a sub that way, but he has heard dom teammates complain about “clingy” subs who encroach on a dom’s space—literally or figuratively, so he starts to lean away, offering, “Sorry, am I—being clingy—”

Geno blinks at him and wraps a hand around Sid’s arm, tugging him back in. “I’m not say clingy, Sid, I say _cuddly_.”

“And cuddly is… good?” Sid checks, just to be sure, although he doesn’t think Geno would be trying to drape Sid over himself like a blanket if it wasn’t.

“Of _course_ cuddly good, Sid,” Geno says. “_Cuddle_ is good. Cuddle is, um, like… um.” He frowns and rubs his thumb over the inside of Sid’s elbow. “Sorry, can’t think of thing it’s like in English, but it’s big good thing about have relationship, not just friends, or hook-ups, you know? Sex you don’t need relationship, but cuddle is extra special for relationship, can’t have from other people. And I like and is nice to have,” he concludes, shifting on to his side so he can throw his leg over Sid’s legs and gather Sid up against his chest. “Like to cuddle my Sid.”

“Oh.” Sid blushes. “Well. I’m glad.” Fairness compels him to point out, “You don’t need a relationship to cuddle, though. You _can_ cuddle with friends.”

Geno gives him a quizzical look. “Who friends you cuddle with, Sid?”

“Well, Flower, for sure,” Sid starts, thinking in particular of that warm, comforting snuggle-pile at the Olympics with Flower and Lu. _That was awesome_, he thinks wistfully.

Then he notices the look on Geno’s face, which is… well, Sid’s not sure what that look is. Mostly it looks like Geno is having a feeling but trying not to let Sid see that he’s having a feeling, which makes Sid nervous. “What is it?”

“Cuddle with Flower?” Geno asks, with a little pout. “You do?”

Sid nods, slowly. _Is there something wrong with that?_ he wonders. But Vero wouldn’t let Flower do it if it wasn’t okay, right?

He ventures, “You, um… you look like you don’t like that.”

Geno shakes his head, smiling, which makes Sid feel better – at least Geno’s not mad at him. But then Geno kind of blows his mind by explaining, with a little laugh, “Jealous, Sid. I’m look jealous.”

Sid blinks. “Jealous of… of _Flower_?”

“Not jealous of Flower,” Geno corrects. He huffs out a breath and laughs again with his eyes closed – clearly laughing at himself. When he opens his eyes to look at Sid again, he confesses, “Jealous of Vero.”

“Of _Vero_?” Sid can’t even wrap his head around that. “What on earth—”

“She’s act like you hers sometimes,” Geno mutters, eyes narrowed, wrapping his arms more tightly around Sid.

Sid opens his mouth to deny it, then remembers Flower saying, _She thinks of you as a little bit hers_. So maybe Geno’s not totally crazy. But that’s in a platonic way – she’s not at all interested in Sid in a way that Geno would need to be jealous of, and he says so.

But Geno shakes his head. “No, no, no.”

“Oh, come on – why would you possibly think that Vero wants…” Sid has to trail off, cheeks turning pink.

Geno props himself up on one elbow and starts counting on the fingers of his other hand. “One,” he starts, “you best. Two, Vero’s hang out with you a lot, so she’s _see_ you best. Three, when she’s see you best, of course she want!” He says this last triumphantly, as if he’s scored some kind of point. _He’s so fucking cute_, Sid thinks, charmed down to his toes. Still, “cute” is not the same as “right.”

“It’s really, really sweet that you think that, but Vero has literally never hit on me, okay—”

Geno scowls, unpersuaded. “She’s just wait for right time.”

Sid tries not to laugh. “And what would that be?”

“Wait for when we fight,” Geno posits, narrowing his eyes again, “and then be like—” He goes into falsetto: “_Oh, Sid, you like cuddle with Flower, like dinner at my house, you fit here so good, we be three and be happy and you show mean Geno—_”

At this point, Sid can’t keep it together – he bursts out laughing, and he only laughs harder when Geno gives him a betrayed look and says, “I worry, Sid, come on! She’s have you in her house all the time, of course she want you stay!”

Once Sid calms down, he cups a hand around Geno’s cheek and meets his eyes to say, “I love you, but you’re ridiculous. Geno, literally no one but you thinks I’m such a great sub. Literally no one but you even thinks I’m any good at all.”

He leans in for a kiss, but Geno pulls away, frowning. He meets Sid’s eyes and asks, “Sid… you really think that?”

Sid shrugs, feeling shy all of a sudden. It’s not like Geno doesn’t know what other doms think of Sid and his submission, but acknowledging it out loud still feels like tempting fate: like wrapping a string of flashing lights around the fact that, objectively, he’s not exactly a prize, even though he knows Geno doesn’t think of it that way_._

Geno looks distressed. “Sid, no…”

“It’s _okay_,” Sid says. He smiles and reaches up to press his thumb into the furrow between Geno’s brows, smoothing it out. “As long as _you_ think I’m great, I don’t give a shit what anybody else thinks. Why should I, eh?” That’s been one of the unexpected joys of their relationship – the exhilarating disengagement from having to give a fuck about whether other doms think Sid is doing submission right.

“But, Sid—”

“I seriously don’t care.” Sid rolls his eyes and scoots in closer to Geno – now that he knows for sure that Geno is a fan of “cuddly,” he’s going to plaster himself up against Geno’s front every chance he gets. In the meantime, he returns to his earlier point: “All I’m saying is, it’s silly for you to be jealous. Nobody—least of all Vero—is out here panting over some weird disobedient sub who can’t take pain and won’t do housework.”

Right away, Geno flinches – they’re so close that Sid can feel it in his whole body. “Sid, _no_,” Geno says again, his voice very low. The line between his eyebrows is back, deeper than before. “Sid, you _not_—I don’t like you talk about yourself like that.”

“It’s—I don’t mean it in a bad way,” Sid says, startled by Geno’s reaction. “Like—I know you love me anyway, that’s the point, it’s just… you don’t have to be jealous because…”

He trails off when Geno pushes himself up into a sitting position and pins Sid with a look. Shaking his head, he mutters something under his breath that sounds like, “Love _anyway_. How you think, I don’t know. But. Okay.” He reaches out to catch Sid’s left hand, curling his own hand around it and bringing it to his mouth for a kiss, which doesn’t seem like something he’d do if he were mad, Sid thinks. So that’s good. He’s not sure what’s going on, but he can tell from the tilt of Geno’s head that he’s thinking hard, so Sid gives him time.

After a minute or so, Geno asks, “What you think if I say, ‘oh, is good I have Sid, because nobody else want dumb ugly Russian, can’t speak English, not real dom anyway because I’m just service top.’”

“_None_ of that is true,” Sid says sharply, his skin prickling. “No one would say that about you, that’s completely—unfair, and wrong—”

“People do say,” Geno replies, which—Sid didn’t know that, and he wants to punch those people in the fucking face. “And is not all wrong. I’m Russian.” He shrugs. “And I’m service top, and my English not good, and not good-looking—”

“_Stop_ that,” Sid says, furious. “That’s—you are good-looking. You’re really handsome.”

Geno smiles, and the smile transforms his whole face – he _is_ handsome, all the time, but when he smiles, he’s beautiful. In a soft voice, he says, almost to himself, “My sweet Sid,” and then he swoops down to take a kiss from Sid’s lips, Sid’s hand still captured in his own.

When their lips part, Geno says with good humor, “Nobody think this. Not even my mama think this. And I don’t care,” he adds, meeting Sid’s eyes, “because is other good things about me. And I wish you see good things about you. See how you so great – special, best. Not just—don’t know how to say. Not just… box full of bad things people say. You more,” he says, squeezing Sid’s hand. “Lots more.”

“I’m… I know there are a lot of good things about me,” Sid replies, and he means it. “I’m a good son, and a good friend. I’ve fought through a lot of hard stuff and I think I’m stronger for it. I just…” He shrugs. Doms think about this stuff less, he’s noticed – they don’t have the constant instinct to check their reflection in other people’s eyes. But Sid can’t help it. “When it comes to being a sub, I… I know what people think of me. Not everybody, obviously, but… a lot of people. And whether they’re right or wrong, that’s still what they think.”

“And what _you_ think, Sid?” Geno asks, watching Sid closely.

Sid hesitates. He knows he should say _I think they’re wrong._ That’s what he wants the truth to be. And being with Geno _has_ changed a lot in the way he thinks about himself. He’s learned to see his submission, through Geno’s eyes, as something worthy and beautiful – a source of pride and delight, not shame. But there are all those other eyes watching him, too, and not caring anymore what they think of his submission—freeing as that is—is different than not_ believing_ it. He’s still working on that part. The very fact that that snarky, dismissive little litany of his own shortcomings—_some weird disobedient sub who can’t take pain and won’t do housework_—had tripped so easily off his tongue… well, Sid’s pretty sure that’s a sign of how much work is left to do.

But when Sid tries to put together the words to share those thoughts with Geno, they all sound wrong: _your love isn’t enough to change me_ or _I don’t completely believe all the nice stuff you say to me_, when that’s not what he means at all.

He throws Geno a helpless look, and the lines of Geno’s face soften with sympathy. “Is complicated, hmm?”

Sid nods, grateful for the rescue.

“Well, is not complicated for me,” Geno says firmly, settling in beside Sid again and folding his arm and leg over Sid for good measure. “Anybody who think you not best, they wrong for sure. And Vero and Flower not stupid like those people, so_…_ I’m still be little bit jealous,” he concludes, with a crooked smile.

Then a flicker of worry crosses his face, and he amends, “Unless you don’t like, is feel scary…”

That hadn’t even crossed Sid’s mind. “No, it’s not scary,” he says immediately. He can see where Geno’s worry comes from, and he knows that some doms take possessiveness too far, but he knows Geno would never try to do anything like stop Sid from going to Vero’s house or tell Sid not to hang out with Flower. Geno is possessive in _good _ways – as far as Sid can tell, it mostly manifests in him holding Sid extra tight and leaving his come and his rope marks all over Sid’s skin and saying “mine” a lot while they scene, all of which Sid wholeheartedly endorses.

When Sid mentions this, of course, Geno’s chest puffs out, and a smug gleam comes into his eyes. “Oh, yes, you like,” he crows, nodding as if he knew it all along.

And Sid does, so he just laughs and lets Geno bask in his smugness.

After he catches a glimpse of the clock, Sid hauls himself out of bed to swab himself down and start his game day routine.

Geno follows, musing, “Maybe I’m ask Vero over for dinner and show her house and how is all set up for you like, show her your favorite rooms, favorite furniture, so she know you like my house best…”

“Oh, boy…” Sid mutters under his breath. What does Flower call it? _Special dom crazy_. There’s probably nothing Sid can do to stop it, but he makes a valiant attempt anyway. “Just so we’re clear,” he says, hanging up his towel and heading back to the bedroom, “I love this house; more importantly, I love _you_; and I’m not going to run away to live with Vero. No matter how nice her house is.”

“You think Vero’s house nice?” Geno asks, tragic—big eyes, pouty lips, the whole thing—just long enough to make Sid regret ever opening his mouth… before dropping the act, chortling at Sid’s reaction and looking ever so pleased with himself.

“You’re the worst,” Sid informs him. “The. Worst.”

“No, best – you say!” Geno points out, gleeful. He checks Sid gently against the side of the bed and whispers in his ear, “I know, Sid. And I love _you_, and I’m happy. I’m just have my little jealous fun. Yes?”

“Sure,” Sid says, rolling his eyes. “You do your weird dom stuff, I give up.” 

“Weird,” Geno repeats with a huff, pretending offense – but the twinkle in his eye gives it away.

*

Meanwhile, across town, in another couple’s bed…

“You really don’t think Geno would—”

“No, my love,” Marc-Andre says, for the thousandth time.

Vero sighs. “Well. You would know. But I think it is very unreasonable of him to be so—”

Marc-Andre bursts out laughing.

“What?” Vero demands, prodding Marc-Andre between the ribs. “What is so funny?”

“I love you,” Marc-Andre says, “but you are the last dom on earth to be accusing another dom of being too possessive.”

Vero sniffs. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“So if _Geno_ asked to borrow _me—_”

“I would beat him over the head with my shoe!”

Marc-Andre gives that a moment to sink in. “And so…”

Vero mutters, “I hate that you are always right.” She burrows under the covers until all he can see is her scowling eyes peeking out at him.

“No beautiful Sid,” Marc-Andre teases, grinning. “You’ll just have to content yourself with little old me.”

Vero snakes one arm out from under the blanket to hook her forefinger into the front of Marc-Andre’s collar and reel him in for a soft kiss. “I suppose I can live with that,” she murmurs, tracing her eyes over every line of his face, and what she means—and what he hears—is _Lucky me_.

**Author's Note:**

> All feedback is loved (including concrit)! Just copying and pasting a line or two that stood out to you means a lot.
> 
> I'm also on [tumblr](https://youhideastar.tumblr.com)!


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